Otto Rehhagel's side secured a 2-1 victory against 10-man Nigeria at the Free State Stadium to give them a glimmer of hope of reaching the next stage.

Samaras, who stepped off the bench to play his part in the victory, was delighted at the result.

He said: "We have a very good team and I just try to do my best. We deserved to win because we worked really hard.

"They are an African team with a lot of strength with power and pace. We pushed ourselves to the limit.

"This is a good moment for us. I never feel pressure. I am positive about football, every single day, every single minute.

"We want to enjoy it but there is not time for celebration.

"We have a flight back to Durban in the morning and then training. We have only four days to prepare for the next game (against Argentina)."

The game was played at the home of Bloemfontein Celtic and Samaras felt the venue was a lucky omen for him after Greece lost their opening game to South Korea.

"That was a good sign with the Celtic connection," he added.

"We have had some criticism but we do play attacking football.

"That is normal as we did not play well against South Korea. But we stayed positive and proved it today."

A blunder by Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, curiously named man of the match, handed Greece victory and left his side facing an early exit from the tournament.

Enyeama, whose team were down to 10 men following Sani Kaita's red card, failed to deal with a soft shot from Alexandros Tziolis in the 72nd minute. The rebound fell to Vasileios Torosidis, who toe-poked the ball home.

It was a sad end for Nigeria who had opened the scoring through Kalu Uche's free-kick, only for Greece to equalise through Dimitrios Salpingidis.

Kaita accepted the referee Oscar Ruiz's decision to award him a red card for a studs-up challenge on Torosidis.

He said: "I would like to apologise to the Nigerian people, my team-mates and to the officials."

Coach Lars Lagerback was left frustrated by the officials.

He said: "You go to the World Cup every four years and I am extremely disappointed.

"The referees tell us to co-operate but you cannot speak to them after the game.

"They won't tell us why the player was sent off. We cannot have this dialogue.

"But I have to congratulate Greece. Now we need a favour from Argentina."